Transportation planning a priority

Friday

Aug 31, 2012 at 11:01 PM

Chris Kardish

Regional transportation planning will see change with the creation of a metropolitan planning organization stretching from Hilton Head Island to Hardeeville, but some officials doubt it will lead to a funding boon.

The federal government declared a new urban area when the population of Bluffton, Hilton Head and unincorporated portions of Beaufort County eclipsed 50,000 in the 2010 census. That requires the establishment of a Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) to form a long-term infrastructure plan and address ongoing projects.

The boundaries of the planning area, which municipal governments have been taking up in their respective councils, will encompass Hardeeville, other parts of Jasper County, the city of Beaufort, Port Royal, Bluffton and Hilton Head. The group, governed by a voting board of representatives from the various municipalities, will be staffed by the four-county Lowcountry Council of Governments (LCOG), which currently takes the lead with infrastructure planning and would continue its role as financial coordinator.

As-yet-undetermined local matching funds from individual municipalities based on population will help pay for the group's operating expenses.

James Ayers, Bluffton's director of engineering, said it would be premature to give a concrete list of projects the group would consider, but priorities might include the extension of Bluffton Parkway to Interstate 95 or transportation infrastructure related to the proposed the Jasper Ocean Terminal.

Funding through the Federal Highway Administration's normal appropriation process, which currently runs through LCOG after it reaches the state level, would now become available to the MPO, though it's hoped that could be used to leverage other sources of funding through sources such as the State Infrastructure Bank or federal grants, Ayers said.

But LCOG's executive director said the area shouldn't expect a large influx of new Highway Administration money because the shift is largely a bureaucratic change from a previously rural designation, meaning the region not funded through the MPO will remain on the rural side. The Lowcountry's $8.5 million take for the four-county region administered by LCOG won't shift dramatically, said Chris Bickley, LCOG's executive director.

"I don't think it'll be the same dollar amount, but I'm certain it will not be significantly more," he said. "This is not going to be a transportation funding windfall for the area."

While the new planning organization could secure State Infrastructure Bank funding and federal grants, "that's not money that'll come to the county more readily" by virtue of the new designation, he said.

"There's nothing inherent in being an MPO that takes you to the front of that line," he said.

Beaufort County Councilman Jerry Stewart, who sits on the LCOG board, called the formation of the MPO an important step toward developing a transportation plan but said "We have a lot of learning ahead of us."

Pointing to a specific example, Stewart said he hopes the new MPO could team up with the Savannah MPO to lobby for grant funding in another attempt at securing money for transportation north of the Broad River after a failed effort last year.

"It's not clear how significant this could be for us, but the hope is we might have a stronger position to gain grants," he said.

The MPO, which will be formed sometime this spring, won't be eligible for federal funding until fiscal year 2014, Bickley said.